Dogs and Glasses
by Harebelle
Summary: Riley surprises Ben by saving a lost dog. Just a little piece about the characters interacting.
1. Chapter 1

**A National Tray-shure Fanfiction**

**I don't own National Treasure, or any of the characters featured in the films.**

**This is just a two part little character-relation piece, I guess.**

**Please comment! I've not posted any fanfiction before, and would love to know what you think. :3**

_**Dogs and Glasses**_

"It's 20,000 leagues, Riley, c'mon." I insisted.

"I've always known it as 2000, _Ben_, you c'mon." Riley Poole insisted otherwise.

"I'll come on? What does that even mean?" I asked, unable to stop myself laughing at this point. "You know I'm right when you'll look it up online as soon as we're back at my place."

"And I'll print off the page and wave it in your face." He said, folding his arms dramatically to make it clear he was positive.

I looked over to him sat beside me in my passenger seat and chuckled: he was fighting back laughter and it was all over his face. We were driving home after a (long) afternoon hunting for some sort of birthday gift for Abigail, which took almost as much work as treasure hunting. The back seat of my car was covered in fancy bags from various stores, and they were filled with various presents from those stores, but we hadn't found anything big-- the main present –yet. As usual, Riley had brought up a random conversation topic, and that had led to other random topics until we landed on Captain Nemo and the story title that was causing my younger friend some confusion.

"Heh, I have a feeling you won't mention it at all when you find out. You probably read it wrong as a kid and it stuck... and that was what-- four years ago?" I added the last part to get a reaction and it worked, he frowned at me and shifted to lift a leg up in the air, waving his Converse shoe wincingly close to my beautiful Japanese oak dashboard.

"Riley... let's not take anything too far..."

"Maybe you shouldn't--Ben, STOP!" His shout caused me to jump and almost swerve the car, but I managed to break when I saw what he was staring at through the windscreen. I realised even as the car was screeching to a halt that I had just put myself, my best friend and everyone driving behind me in serious danger over something you're specifically told not to do so for while learning to drive: a dog in the road.

But blessedly, we were on the less busy sub-urban outskirts of town and there were no other cars to crash into the back of us (though plenty of shopping bags had hit the back of our seats.) There were cars on the opposite side though, and I caught a confused expression of a woman whirring by.

I barely noticed that Riley was already out of the vehicle, as my heart tried to escape my ribcage and I flicked on the hazard lights, trying to recover from the shock for a few seconds. I blinked and recovered enough to jump out after him, calling.

"Riley, be careful!" He was displaying a rare lack of self-preservation, trying to catch a little white and brown Jack Russell terrier that darted to and fro across both lanes. A few cars were now showing up from the direction we had came in and I had to shout at them in anger as they pulled out across the other lane to drive around mine, ignoring the risk they were causing to the young man in glasses and the canine he was chasing.

More aware of the danger than Riley apparently was, I ran to him in the centre of the road, on the white lines and grabbed him by the back of his hoodie, jerking him sharply to get his attention.

"Just let me--" He didn't look at me, trying to dive down on the confused animal that had run near us in fear of a honking taxi. I let go for a fraction of a second to move my grip up to his collar, but he managed to get away within the gap and duck, somehow scooping up the dog his both arms.

"H-hey, got you, chief, alright."

"IDIOTS!" A jerk in a pick-up going a ridiculous speed snapped Riley back to the situation and he looked at me with the same _'what now, Ben?'_ expression he always did in heated times on our treasure quests, though he was obviously also revealed at the dog's safety. I didn't speak, and just pulled him by an elbow over to the pavement, away from the road and only then waved my arms about in disbelief and concerned anger.

"WHAT? What—what was that?! Riley! You—what is wrong with you?!"

He flinched at my yelling at him, but clutched the animal defensively and tried to justify his madness.

"He's too much like my grandma's little dog, Starry, Ben-- I couldn't let him be smashed by a car--"

"Starry II is worth almost dying for?" I lowered my voice, I hadn't meant to shout and Riley knew that. I wasn't apologising yet, though. I continued.

"After everything we've survived...You didn't even look if there were cars coming--"

"I could see out of the corners of my eyes! I'm not--"

"Just get in the car." I stalked down the path to my car and around to the driver's seat, climbing in and clicking on my seatbelt. I watched Riley sigh and stroke the dog as he hugged it to his chest, muttering something to it, or himself. He looked up at me through the windscreen and smiled thinly before walking over and climbing through the passenger door he had left open.

We sat breathing for a moment, then I switched off the hazard lights and focused on the mirrors to see if I could start moving the vehicle. Riley Poole spoke as I started to drive, at the same moment I did.

"I'm sorry I--"

"Ben, I didn't mean to--"

We both burst out laughing, crazy laughter that made the dog bark. I didn't take my eyes off the road at all, though.

"Hey, shush." He said, to the dog, I assumed.

"Is the dog alright? Does the collar have an address?" I asked, hiccuping once or twice.

"Yeah."

"Yes to what?"

"Both."

"Is it close-- the uh, dog's address?"

I dared to take my eyes from the road to glance at Riley, and he smiled at me. The dog looked like it was smiling too, actually.

"If we pull over we can walk."

------

**This story is very loosely inspired on me once finding a little lost dog with my friends. Are there oak trees in Japan? Do they make fine dashboards? I actually visited a wooden dashboard maintenance site and still don't know.**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Dogs and Glasses **_

_**Chapter II**_

**I still don't own National Treasure or it's characters. Or Sweeney Todd! But you should see it (if you don't mind delicious human-pies)**

**I left it waaay too long since the last chapter, but it's all practice and what-not.**

**Please leave comments, they'd mean a lot to me. :3**

Riley didn't seem bothered by the dog barking at my face as he walked beside me. He wore a cheery little smile as he counted the numbers of the homes we were passing in the tidy neighbourhood.

"Sixty-four, this is it." The Jack Russell barked one more time and wagged it's tail as though confirming this before attempting to leap from Riley's arms at the bungalow before us.

"Easy, chief, let's be civilised and knock." He turned to the paved path leading to the bungalow, which was a quaint, well-kept building with an equally nice lawn. Before staring down the path, however, he dropped his smile and blinked at me.

"What if they think we stole the dog and we're bringing him back for a reward?"

"If they have a TV and have ever watched the News, they'll know we don't need any money, Riley." I waggled my fingers at the dog as I spoke, but it barely paid any attention. "Anyway, we won't be holding out empty sacks with dollar signs on, will we?"

My best friend looked at the ground. "In the school holidays, my friends and I sometimes looked for lost pets just for the reward money."

"Riley, that's not right."

"I know, jeez! That's why I'm telling you. I'm apologising." He gave me an irate look, clearly annoyed that I didn't 'get it'. I gave him a grin back, and he rolled his blue eyes.

"I'll knock." I said, stepping around him and walking up to the front door. There was a brass knocker shaped like a fox, but also an electric doorbell. Riley decided for me.

"We live in the age of technology."

"Fine." I held my finger on the bell for a couple of seconds and stepped back.

After a few moments, the ring was answered by a elderly woman who was a living example of the type of old lady you imagine when speaking about the aged. She was tiny, barely past Riley's shoulders with silver hair in a neat bob, complete with pins holding it in place. The blue apron she wore over a floral dress was covered with flour, which ended up all over Riley as she dashed forward to take the madly wagging terrier from him.

"Maxwell! Whatever are you doing with my dog?" She looked Riley and his casual clothes up and down.

"Uh--"

"He was running about in the street nearby, ma'am and my friend picked him up." I explained.

The lady's slightly suspicious expression lifted. "He should be in the back garden right now! Oh dear, he must have found a way out."

She patted the dog and placed it inside the hallway, where it disappeared into the house, then beamed at me.

"Well, I can't thank you enough, you know, but may I bother you for a little more help? Before you go could you help me find how he escaped my garden, it's quite large and I'm not very keen on crawling through the bushes."

Riley had sneezed as she was speaking, then nudged me. "'s no problem, right, Ben?"

"Of course not, we'll look for you, ma'am."

"It's Mrs. Lovell, dear. We can go around the side of the house."

** **

I lightly swatted at a huge solitary bee that emerged from the bush I was ducked behind, but there was no hole in the fence before me or what I could see along either direction of it.

Mrs. Lovell wasn't joking about the size of her backyard: it was like a small park, with a paved path along its length, flower beds and completed with an ornate pond.

"I've found it! A hole-- uh, the dog's dug a hole here--ahCHOO!" Riley's excited call ended with another sneeze, but I could see he was grinning from where he knelt across the garden. Thankful to be out of the foliage, I dusted my knees and jogged over to him and Mrs. Lovell who was already standing by the young hacker.

"Aw, Ben, you have dirt on your new shoes." He brushed off a little soil from my left shoe, then blinked and looked up at Mrs. Lovell. "Uh, he dug-- it's only a little gap under the fence, we could probably block it for you. Uh, ma'am."

The old woman leaned down to view the damage and tutted. It was obviously the work of Maxwell, as the freshly clawed away soil allowed a space into the street only the smallest of Jack Russells could fit through.

"What a naughty boy, he's never been one for digging holes before. I suppose I'll have to keep a closer eye on him when he's playing out here."

"You could squirt him with water if he starts digging." Suggested Riley. "Or shake a tin with stones in it."

"I don't want to scare my dog, young man." Mrs. Lovell said rather flatly.

I had noticed that the pond was ringed with various sized slabs of natural slate and went to retrieve one, not hearing Riley's reply. When I returned with it, I had to assure the senior that it was one of the decorative rocks and not part of the actual rim of the pond, then asked Riley to push the loose soil back under the fence.

Firmly pushing the slab into the soft earth, I blocked the hole and leant back admiring the job.

"Well, there you are, ma'am. Maxwell will have to start a new hole if he feels like being an escape artist again." I stood up and was quickly taken aback by a kiss on the cheek by Mrs. Lovell. I knew I would be going red and thought I heard a snicker from Riley, but it turned into yet another sneeze followed by annoyed mumbling.

"Ergh...I shouldn't have held that dog for so long...fur all over my clothes, c'mon...Or maybe it was that flour..."

** **

Riley nearly tripped on the sprinkler as we waved a final farewell over our shoulders as we left the bungalow. Mrs. Lovell closed the door and we had to listen to muffled barking from behind it until we were halfway down the street and it faded away.

"Well, that's my good deed for...this season." My best friend sniffed and dusted down his hoodie. "Still, she didn't really like me, huh, Ben?"

"I didn't actually know you had noticed. I'm going with it's because you dressed too casually today, kiddo." I chuckled, flipping his hood up onto his hair.

"Yeah, guess I lack the old-lady-attracting aura you have around you." I lightly shoved him and he laughed. "Hey, do you think she'd have made me into a delicious meat pie if I'd stayed any longer?"

"What?"

"You know: _you who eat pies, Mrs. Lovell's meat pies conjure up the treat pies used to be!_" He sang, not too poorly, actually.

"Sweeney Todd? You like musicals?"

"Uh, I like the _movie. _Oh wait, it's Lovett. Never mind, I'm an idiot." He smacked a palm onto his forehead comically.

"Oh good, I thought we'd have another 20,000 leagues on our hands. Bless you." I said in advance, hearing him inhale sharply before sneezing.

We reached the car and I slowly sat down, staring at the dashboard. There was very clearly a dusty scuff on the passenger side. On my beautiful Japanese oak. Riley caught me looking.

"It happened when you hit the brakes so quickly-- I couldn't help it! Look it comes off." He rubbed at it with a sleeve. "Uh, it _will_ come off. Just needs water."

I pretended to be annoyed, knowing it would rub off, but wanting an apology for putting my poor car in such a state. He called my bluff and managed to get me laughing instead.

We drove home chatting. It was nice. No dogs ran in front of us and we bounced ideas for Abigail's birthday gift off of one another, until we eventually pulled up my long driveway.

"I'll help with the bags, Ben, but is it alright if you drive me home after? I'm hungry."

"Nah, you're eating dinner with Abigail and myself tonight. I can regale your heroic tale over a deep gravy pie."

"Who's it made of?

END

- - - -

**Well there is is. Thanks for reading, NT fans.**


End file.
